'Nowhere to go': Villagers watch as bulldozers move in

It was the last day of class before the Aidilfitri break, and Wahidatul Ifa Daud was rushing to fetch her children from school. 

In the midst of the hustle and bustle, the housewife was surprised by a call from her neighbour. A group of strangers had come to their village and put up a notice on each inhabited home. 

The notice, which directed them to vacate their homes by May 2, marked the start of a nightmare for the 12 families who had lived in Kampung Koskan Tambahan for over 40 years.

And coming just days before the Hari Raya celebration, it dampened the spirits and festive feelings of the residents in the village. 

"We won't celebrate this year. Everyone will gather at my mother's house. We'll celebrate there and discuss what to do," Wahidatul, a mother of four, told MalaysiaNow.

For many of the villagers, Kampung Koskan Tambahan, located between a river and the North-South Expressway and accessible only by a small, one-lane road, was the only home they had ever known. 

A piece of land adjacent to the village had been flattened for development purposes, and while residents had applied for a land grant as far back as 2006, they were told that the lot in question was a river reserve. 

A statement by a Selangor government officer said that ownership could be traced back to 1890 before the land was sold to a private company in 1991. 

In the days leading to the scheduled demolition, some of the residents agreed to the money offered to them in exchange for their homes. 

However, others felt it was an under-the-table solution given the lack of official documentation, and resolved to stay. 

A memorandum sent to Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari went unanswered.  

The demolition notice was scheduled for enforcement on May 2. On that day, most of the residents took leave from work, ready with banners to express their dissatisfaction. 

Their children also skipped the first day back at school as a precautionary measure in the event that the demolition proceeded as planned. 

However, no court officer turned up, and many of the villagers began to suspect that any representative would only come once the attention on their homes had died down. 

The very next day, the bulldozers arrived. 

The electricity supply was cut off and the machines began their work. 

Wahidatul and her family members watched with the rest of the villagers as one by one, the homes that had been vacated were turned into heaps of rubble. 

The remaining residents were given until May 11 to leave as well. 

Wahidatul's husband, Mohd Saufi Md Kasim, had planned to renovate their house a little and even purchased the supplies and equipment needed. 

Speaking to MalaysiaNow, though, he said it looked like his plans would not come to pass. 

"We are not stubborn, but where are we supposed to go? If there is an agreement in black and white that we will receive state housing and our names are in the housing grant, then it would be okay," he said.

But with no official agreement and the May 11 deadline looming ever closer, it appears that there is little they can do, at least for now.